What is the difference between the Greatest Hits games for PlayStation and the regular or original games?

Answer 1

PlayStation GamesGreatest Hits (GH)

Once a game has been out on the market for at least 9 months, and has sold more than 400,000 copies, Sony gives the company an opportunity to change that title into a Greatest Hit. If the company decides to do so, that title will now sell for only $19.99. That title will also go through some changes, for example, a slightly changed cover. Look at Sub section C3 for more detailed differences. There are more than 60 Greatest Hits games to choose from, which makes the PlayStation 2 a great system if you believe that paying $50 for a single game is too much.

All Greatest Hit games: All GH games have a few differences over their original version. There is a black "PlayStation 2" logo at the top of each PlayStation 2 game. When a game turns into a Greatest Hit, that logo is turned red, and the words "Greatest Hit" are printed below it. The cover art may be cropped a little bit so the words, "Greatest Hits" can be successfully printed on the cover without the Art and GH logo overlapping. Non-GH versions of games also have a black PlayStation 2 logo on the side of the case. This logo is also turned red when a game becomes a Greatest Hit. Unlike the PSone Greatest Hit library, PS2 Greatest Hits still have the original CD art printed on the CD, even though a small change does take place. Yet again, there is a Black PS2 logo at the bottom of the disc itself. That logo's color is changed from black to red.

In rare cases, the whole cover (or parts of it) art itself gets changed. For example, Sly Cooper's cover was completely changed. It does actually look better, and in my opinion, attract more customers into buying it. Also, the cover of Kingdom Hearts was slightly changed. While the original non-Greatest Hit version of KH had a shiny affect to the cover, the Greatest Hit version had this shine affect taken off. Twisted Metal Black's back cover art was slightly changed. There are a few gameplay pictures on the back, and one of them was changed. The original had a picture of a character blowing up the plane in the first level, but it was changed for some reason..

There usually isn't a difference in gameplay between the Greatest Hit and non- Greatest Hit version, but it is heard of in some instances. For example, "Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex" had some loading times shortened. Some companies also fix a bug or two before releasing this [their games] as a GH!

Furthermore, another example of a company that usually updates their game before re-releasing it as a Greatest Hits title is Polyphony Digital. Some of the known examples are the PlayStation (PS) G.H. version of "Gran Turismo 2" which had a bug fixed in order to have the game completed 100%. Another example is the significant difference between the original PlayStation 2 (PS2) "Gran Turismo 4" game and its G.H. version. The G.H. version had its back cover updated to say "Over 700 cars" instead of 650 cars (I do not know if there are actually more cars in the G.H. version but one ponders the possibility). Also, the back cover had the picture of the car pedals removed and replaced with screenshots from the game and had the game's descriptors in a different layout and a logo for Polyphony Digital was added. Most importantly, the instruction manual was updated by being completely finished; meaning those who waited for the G.H. version didn't have to go online to Sony's PlayStation website to download the updated manual. Even so, the one in the G.H. version still has the most complete instruction manual available. Finally, knowing of the company's past efforts, there is a possibility the game's code might have been polished up a bit before being re-released. Some other significant examples of changes made from the original game release to the G.H. re-release are: "Soul Calibur 2" had its' Namco demo disc removed; The GH version of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" is not compatible with save files from its non-GH counterpart; "Devil May Cry 3" became a special edition which improved its' difficulty level balancing and added new features and content; "Virtua Fighter 4" became "VF4: Evolution" which had its' graphics improved, and added new content and features; "Twisted Metal: Black" now included an online component (adding a disc) and its' instruction manual was compacted making the rest available online, and the original offline game was placed on a DVD-ROM instead of a CD; "Marvel Ultimate Alliance" had a new "Special Edition" which includes a Bonus Disc with extras (Behind the Scenes, trailers); "Silent Hill 2" now included previous X-Box and Japan/Europe exclusives such as new content and enhanced graphics; "DragonBall Z Budokai 3" includes an unlockable bonus feature that lets you listen to the original Japanese voiceover cast.